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Before Germany’s Massive Hack, We Learned What Not to Do With Sensitive Stolen Information

5-1-2019 < Blacklisted News 43 317 words
 

Someone has been publishing a massive trove of sensitive personal information—including phone numbers, private chats, family photos, and documents—of dozens of German politicians in what some are calling “the biggest hacker attack” in the country’s history.


On Friday, the leak was the biggest news in Germany, and perhaps in all Europe. German authorities are investigating the incident, and victims are already speaking out about how it’s affecting them.



The leaks first attracted widespread attention in Germany, and subsequently around the world after news outlet RBB first reported on a Twitter account that spread the data. (Twitter has since suspended the account.) The person or people behind it had been posting links to the stolen data since early December, but apparently very few noticed until Thursday, after YouTube celebrity Simon Unge revealed he had been hacked too.


The hackers behind the leak appear to have carefully disseminated and backed up the files online on several platforms to avoid takedowns. According to the security expert known as The Gruqg pointed out, the data had been uploaded to as many as 161 different locations online.





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Hundreds of German politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, have had personal details stolen and published online. Contacts, private chats and financial details were put out on Twitter which belong to figures from every political party except the far-right AfD. Data from celebrities and journalists were also leaked.


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